


Like Sharpened Puzzle Pieces

by botgal



Category: Homestuck, Vast Error
Genre: All the Repiton Trolls are gems, Gen, Vast Error - Freeform, houseki no kuni AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 17:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16580885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/botgal/pseuds/botgal
Summary: A brief ficlet from a Houseki no Kuni AU I've had in mind.Calder ends up shattered, and Laivan and Occeus take the time to do their jobs and piece him back together.





	Like Sharpened Puzzle Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not wholly sure I've captured the characters as they really are in the comic, but then it's an AU and I had fun with it, so there you go.  
> Also I have no idea how to write Murrit talking I'm sorry

“... Is this. All the pieces we have of him?” Laivan looked over his shoulder to where Occeus stood, staring down at the multitude of gem pieces that lay out on the table of their declared “medical ward”. The pile of shards would normally be known by the name Calder. But, given that he was presently shattered into several hundred to thousand shards of dark magenta padraparascha, the name hardly seemed easy to connect when it didn't look like him.

“Uh, yeah. I already asked the people who brought him in. I guess when he got shattered by the Lunarians, part of his leg and arm fell into the sea.” Laivan hefted the jar of gray powder they put over their bodies onto a nearby stool, in preparation of when the repairs were finished. “Serpaz came back a little before they brought Calder back and grabbed the pine resin for Murrit to go look for the pieces.”

Occeus grunted with understanding. With Calder out of commission, Murrit would be the only one left who could go searching in the sea for anything that got lost in there. The mutated sea creatures weren't the problem so much as the caustic effects of the polluted brine. For most of them, the water touching their surfaces would eat away at them. Washing away their inclusions bit by bit until there was nothing left of them, like a crystal of salt dropped into fresh water. Calder and Murrit, on the other hand, were the only ones with structures and hardness strong enough that they could somewhat safely traverse the water with only a thin layer of resin adding to their body's resistance to the washing of the acidic tides.

“And if he can't find them?” Laivan gave him a look, but Occeus shook his head before he could respond. “Never mind. You go sit by the window to take in some sun. I'll call you over when I'm ready for your help.” Laivan nodded, honestly relieved to be able to soak in a bit more sun. He plodded over to the window and took up his usual chair, sighing as he leaned back near the glass so he could feel the energizing rays soak into his inclusions through his surfaces.

Occeus, on his part, put himself immediately to work. Sifting through the pieces and finding the best way to put them back together. An easy enough job for the most part, given most of him had broken apart into relatively large pieces. It was more like putting together bricks than solving a puzzle. Everything slowly connecting into place the more he pushed them together. Thankfully, Calder still seemed to be settled into the odd near senseless state of rest that gems sometimes entered after a sudden shattering. For the best, in all honesty. He didn't particularly enjoy it when people tried to get chatty while he worked on repairing them, least of all when it was this guy.

After a while, Occeus stood back from his handiwork, staring down at his patient. His hands gripped at his sides a few times, brow set into deep contemplation.

“... Laivan.” The other gem started when he heard himself being addressed, hopping off his stool to venture closer to the treatment side of the room.

“Yeah? What's up?” Occeus motioned wordlessly to their mutual patient, and Laivan winced a bit.

“Oh. That bad, huh?” Aside from a few shards that remained unattached and rested in a nearby bowl which would eventually serve a mostly cosmetic purpose to smooth out his features, it was easy to see the issue. Without the parts which had fallen to the sea, Calder would be missing a portion of his left leg up to the knee, and the entirety of his right arm when he woke up. “This could be a problem,” Laivan murmured. “We don't have any extra fragments of his type we could use to replace them if Murrit doesn't find those pieces he lost. And that's even if we were talking about the materials that would be a stretch to use.”

“... Technically we _do_ have perfectly compatible spare parts for him,” Occeus pointed out. Laivan tilted his head to study his features. But that didn't help. With how dour his face was and those goggles, he was about as easy to read as a book with a lock and no key.

“I mean... I _guess_? But I doubt he'd be really happy about it.”

The both of them looked toward the storage area of the room. Where they kept all of the excesses of gem pieces that they collected from the Beach of Beginnings when yet another gem failed to make it to proper maturity and ended up as nothing more than so much useless gemstone. Or, at least that's what most of the parts were. In one of the drawers, they both knew, was one whole gem, broken into pieces. However... it wasn't one that anyone still present in their final corner of the world was particularly keen to have put back together. Even after all this time.

“Well I doubt he'd be happier if he ended up missing limbs,” Occeus replied. “Maybe... if we just didn't tell him-”

The door to the medical ward slammed open, making both of them start and several of the containers on the shelves rattle ominously.

“Ay what up, nerdlings!” Murrit grinned as he waltzed into the room, hefting a sack over his shoulder. “Yo, think fast!” He hucked the sack in Laivan's direction, making the latter start and stumble backwards quickly. Just barely in time to catch the wet sack in his hands before it hit the ground. “Man you would not _believe_ the shizznit I had to do just to clasp my digits on all those. It is a _tale_ bigger than the ones on the fishes, ya feel?” He shrugged. “Whatever. I got em all back, so you can pop em all back on Padapop over there and make him good as new.”

“Oh, okay, thanks.” Laivan hefted the sack onto the table, laying out the pieces. Much like the other pieces, the parts that made up the leg and arm were still fairly big. So the process of reassembling and reattaching them theoretically wouldn't take all that long. “Are we still on for a game tonight?”

“Fo' shizzle. Gonna be owning your sparkly ass so hard may as well be using you as replacement parts, bos-bud.” He flicked his fingers out at them. A typical signal for a Murrit goodbye. “Now, if you'll both excuse me, I've gotta go scrape off all this tree gunk before the sea burns through it all and starts eating at me. Plus I really don't wanna be here when that guy wakes up. Murrit, _out_!” With a turn on his heel and a flick of the hand over his shoulder, he was gone again. Just like that.

“... Well, it's good that we got Calder's limbs back,” Laivan commented in an attempt to break the silence.

“I guess,” Occeus muttered. “Let's finish this up quick.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Between the two of them, the job went fairly quickly. The quick, businesslike reattachment of fragments, ensuring the whole of his surface was as it was before, and the brisk dusting of the gray refractive powder. And just like that, the job was done. All that would be needed was for him to wake up.

“That went better than expected,” Laivan commented, looking at their handiwork. “Good thing Murrit found his parts, or we would've been in trouble, huh?”

“Yes, that's all well and good,” Occeus replied. “If that's all I'm needed for here, I need to get back to work.”

“Oh. Uh, okay.” Laivan watched him walk out, not making much move to try to convince him otherwise. There was really no more need for his presence now the job was done. He glanced between the door and Calder, shifting slightly. “I guess... I'd better go find Serpaz. Make sure we get the resin jar back.” Half he said for himself, half for the still unconscious gem on the table, regardless if he could hear him or not. “So, I guess I'll just... go take care of that... Back soon.” He shuffled his way to the door, making sure to shut it behind him as he left the ward. With the still patient lying alone in the silence.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For brief reference as to my headcanons on what kinds of gems they are  
> Calder is a Padparadscha Sapphire (as is Caesar, broken up though he is).  
> Occeus is a Tanzanite  
> Laivan is Aquamarine with an issue with his inclusions that makes him inefficient at absorbing sunlight, meaning he gets tired easier and has to be in the sun more to function right (to replace his lung condition).  
> Murrit is an Alexandrite.  
> And Serpaz, though briefly mentioned, is a Turqoise who has a brittle leg due to losing several shards of it to the moon people.


End file.
